Well, I certainly have to agree that this is a very original take on canon! These sorts of stories are the ones that I really enjoy - where writers develop on their own interpretation of canon events and of the magical mechanics - or the workings of the wizarding world. The Sorting Hat as a Horcrux is such an amazing idea because after all, Horcruxes are bits of souls with the capacity for normal thought and feeling - and Riddle's horcruxes are even able to defend themselves or influence the minds of others. And of course, the Sorting Hat is the one mysterious inanimate object of the series that can penetrate into the minds of students and delve into their inmost qualities and sort them accordingly. Also, it's a sentient thing. These are lovely parallels between the Hat and other regular Horcruxes which you noticed and connected, so great work with this. The one thing about Horcruxes that does make me a little doubtful: I'd always thought that creating a Horcrux is supposedly one of the worst acts of evil in the magical world - and that the person creating one would have to kill another in an act of cold blood and utter malice in order to successfully split his soul. It seemed that Slytherin's death was rather accidental - in a furious duel rather than a malevolent act on the part of Gryffindor. In fact Gryffindor shows a great deal of remorse at killing his friend, and remorse - deep unrelenting remorse - is precisely what it takes to reverse a Horcrux. That being said, I guess JKR never really gave many details on the whole Horcrux creation thing, so you do have some freeway with this, and as mentioned earlier, I really do like this interpretation of yours.

With your interpretation in mind, I like how Gryffindor's creation of a Horcrux is a nice subversion of a Dark Magic act to produce something good - something that can guide and protect the future generations of students attending Hogwarts. If there's anyone who can make something good out of Dark Magic acts, it would be Godric. Or Dumbledore :)

Your characterisations are quite wonderful in this story. Tom was his cold, calculating self - and there were specific moments throughout the narrative where he was just so Tom-like, so canon!Voldemort e.g. the bit where after learning about the method of creating a Horcrux, he simply tunes out of the rest of the memory without seeing the collaboration between Godric and his soul fragment. That's so Voldy. And how he treats the Sorting Hat as a thing of reverence after learning of its true nature. Even the act of him studying the Hat in the Great Hall in such a chilling and clinical manner, pressing the pads of his fingers together, is so telling about the character. Great work on that. I also love your depiction of the Sorting Hat! That initial dry voice that gradually weakens as its psychological and mental barriers are systematically breached by Tom. I love how it tries to protect its memories, and the fact that it probably told nobody else about this encounter with Tom - not even Dumbledore. I get the idea that the Hat and thus, the soul fragment of Godric's is trying to protect the memory and the figure of Godric Gryffindor himself. Well, it is Gryffindor himself, actually. AGH THIS IS CREEPY JUST REALISED THAT VOLDEMORT DID LEGILIMENCY ON GODRIC GRYFFINDOR.

Sorry for the caps. The realisation just hit me...hard.

You've also got some lovely descriptions - my favourite part has got to be the early and much happier memories of Godric and Salazar. They remind me so much of Thor and Loki ^.^ Loved the description of 'carnivorous laughter'

Anyway, I think you've done an amazing job with this story. It's original, it's intriguing and it opens up canon so boldly and so successfully. Amazing writing.

-teh

Author's Response: Hello! It's so great to hear that you liked this story and it's different components: I was a little worried that it would be too dis-jointed. I love stories like that too: where writers take their own spin on canon and expand on it, so I'm very honoured that you think I pulled that off!! :)

It's funny, the idea of the Sorting Hat being a Horcrux just hit me one day and I felt like it made perfect sense. It reminded me particularly of the diary Riddle, and since we don't know much about other Horcruxes from canon I thought, well why not?

I definitely see your doubt about how the Horcrux was made my Gryffindor accidentally killing Slytherin. I guess I thought of it as a sort of act of penance for Gryffindor: he seems like a noble, sacrificing sort, and I imagined that the horror of killing his friend would be too fresh and frightening to heal his soul, and that the act of killing someone he once loved would make him form the Horcrux as an act of penance, not for his own gain. Ah, I don't know! :P But a lot of the love-related lore in canon is so vague, I thought why not toy with it a little!

Ah, I totally agree that Godric and Dumbledore would be the type to create good out of evil! In hindsight, I think I actually based Godric a little on Dumbledore and his sense of honour.

I'm so happy to hear that you liked the characterization!! I actually quite liked writing Tom, his body language and thought process actually came quite naturally. I don't think I could have written him in first person, however: that would have been far too disturbing.

I felt so bad for putting the poor hat through that ordeal! It's great to hear how it came across as being Gryffindor, however!!! That is really cool but creepy!!! Haha, I loved your realization in caps! :)

I'm so glad that you pointed out the Thor/Loki comparison because now that I reflect on it, that's exactly how I would picture them! Seriously, even if I were to make a graphic of those two, it would totally be the actors who play Thor and Loki acting exactly like Thor and Loki! Creepy... :)

Thank you so much for this truly lovely review, I loved reading it and hearing that you liked the story is so humbling! Merci beaucoup! :D